Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 1.djvu/336

310 called out, “Where is the cellaress?” And in came the old woman, to whom said he, “Dost thou know me, O pestilent old woman?” “No, my lord,” replied she; and he said, “I am he of the five hundred dinars, to whose house thou camest to make the ablution and pray, and whom thou didst after lure hither.” “Fear God and spare me!” exclaimed she. But he paid no heed to her and striking her with the sword, cut her in four. Then he went in search of the young lady; and when she saw him, her reason fled and she called out for mercy. So he spared her and said to her, “How camest thou to consort with this black?” Quoth she, “I was slave to a certain merchant and the old woman used to visit me, till I became familiar with her. One day she said to me, ‘We have to-day a wedding at our house, the like of which was never beheld, and I wish thee to see it.’ ‘I hear and obey,’ answered I, and rising, donned my handsomest clothes and jewellery and took with me a purse containing a hundred dinars. Then she brought me hither, and hardly had I entered the house, when the black seized on me, and I have remained in this case these three years, through the perfidy of the accursed old woman.” Then said my brother, “Is there aught of his in the house?” “He had great store of wealth,” replied she: “and if thou canst carry it away, do so, and may God prosper it to thee!” Then she opened to him several chests full of purses, at which he was confounded, and said to him, “Go now and leave me here and fetch men to carry off the money.” So he went out and hired ten men, but, when he returned, he found the door open and the damsel gone, and nothing left but a little of the money and the household stuff. By this, he knew that she had cheated him; so he opened the closets and took what was in them, together with the rest of the money, leaving nothing in the house, and passed the night in all content. When he arose in the morning, he found at the